Stories of lives of ancestors exchanged

February 16, 2006

"There were only two kinds of slave women," Ollie Scott said. "The house slaves and the field slaves, and none of their jobs were easy." Over the years, the countless tales of courage and commitment from black women have been little told. But not on this day. Members of the Alberta King Women's Group at the Martin Luther King Center were having their say. They told their mothers' stories and their grandmothers' stories in honor of Black History Month. It's a reminder how close we really are in time to the days of slavery and to the days after Emancipation when blacks still were oppressed. "My mother was the shining thread of hope in my life," said Irene Curry, 81. "She was always around, and she always had babies around her -- black ones and whites ones -- while my daddy worked in the fields." Their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers had to learn to live through cruelties so horrible and so bizarre that they had to find ways to reinvent themselves. "The masters used to give the poor blacks all the scraps to eat," said Florine Mitchell, 80. "They (the masters) would eat all the good meat and throw away the scraps, like the pigs' feet, ears and pieces like that. "But what Master failed to understand is that our mothers would take those ears and feet and make us a full meal. That's just how smart and clever they were." Clever, indeed. Not only could they make a meal out of nothing, but they learned how to sew, clean and take care of their own children frugally as well. It was all in a day's work. "My mother was a quilter," said Alvie Williams, 84. "She would take pieces of old dresses, overalls and sheets and piece them all together and make quilts to keep her children warm. "Nothing was ever thrown away. They used everything to make something." But their lives were never easy because of all the hardship and abuse many of them faced. "I often looked up at my mama and she would seem to be in another world," said Curry. "She would be humming quietly, looking up in the sky as if she was trying to find a safety and sanctuary inside herself." All agreed their ancestors dreamed of a just world. They learned quickly how to do their work and how to raise a family. Because of their example, black women have been doing this for generations. "Hell, black women were workhorses in the field and Master's personal property in the house," said Scott, 72. "The master used them, the white women used them, but they still juggled a family, went to church and maintained an inner life, as well as teaching their children to be survivors." So it's a history in achievement and struggle, and it's a history that teaches the important values black women had to develop. "And, of course, most importantly, black women never gave up hope, in spite of the oppression, the lynching and the rape and the violence and the poverty," Scott said. "They never, ever gave up hope." That's something we can all be inspired by, no matter what race, no matter the gender.Staff writer May Lee Johnson: mjohnson@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6326 May Lee Johnson Tales from the West Side May Lee Johnson is a Tribune staff writer.